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Hardwired inhibitions vpp16

Why do people stand idly by as their coworkers do things that are clearly unsafe and say nothing when they know that they should? This presentation provides an overview of some of the more significant but often overlooked cognitive and social factors that suppress safety interventions and describes some significant first steps that organizations can take to move beyond "stop work authority" and address the hidden, but very real forces that keep their employees silent in the face of obvious risk.

6.
Why We Stay Silent
Stop Work Authority
97% of respondents said
that they were given the
authority to stop work at
their company.
(2010 Study of Safety Intervention)

7.
Why We Stay Silent
Stop Work Authority
It only addresses one of the
factors that keep us from
speaking up:
Fear of formal punishment for
insubordination or slowing
productivity.

8.
Why We Stay Silent
Safety “Intervention”
Most people take this responsibility very seriously
and believe that they would speak up…
…but in the moment, they usually say nothing.

9.
Why We Stay Silent
The “Context Effect”
What we think about, care about and
remember is determined by our immediate
context.

10.
Why We Stay Silent
The “Context Effect”
The production context is
different from the safety
meeting context.

11.
Why We Stay Silent
Inhibiting Forces:
Production Pressure
It literally changes the way
we see the world.

12.
Why We Stay Silent
Inhibiting Forces:
The Unit Bias
We are strongly inclined to
ﬁnish a given unit or task
before changing what we are
doing.

13.
Why We Stay Silent
Inhibiting Forces:
Deference to Authority
We don’t always speak up to
authorities…or around
authorities.

14.
Why We Stay Silent
Inhibiting Forces:
Bystander Eﬀect
The more people there are,
the less likely we are to
speak up.

15.
Why We Stay Silent
“The Perfect Storm”
Even when there is no production
pressure, authority ﬁgure, unit
bias or group of people inhibiting
us, there is something else that
can keep us silent in the face of
disaster.